


Inevitable

by doinganap



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Reality, i'm a sap and it is not ok, very nostalgic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 19:19:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9252200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doinganap/pseuds/doinganap
Summary: There's an ampersand glowing on top of their bookshelf and seven years between the two of them. He wants to give Phil everything. Or the cloyingly nostalgic proposal fic.





	

**Author's Note:**

> hi enjoy the quickest fic i have ever written. i am a sap.

He does it because it’s been over seven years. **  
**

There’s an ampersand on top of the bookshelf. Dan turns it on every night even though there is more than enough light in the lounge. One of the bulbs has burnt out but he hasn’t fixed it yet.

They built a taller Ikea bookshelf last year by the lounge door. There were too many memories to store in the shorter one they had bought two years before. Phil rolled his eyes when he saw Dan had spelt out the word memes on the tiny billboard they bought. The picture of Dan with his family’s dog rests on one of the new shelves. Phil put it there because he thought the picture deserved more space to be seen. Dan has to blow out the candle Phil lights everyday before they leave the house. They stay in more often than not though.

Dan felt a little guilty when he cleaned his room in September. They had just finished with the Australian tour. The suitcases hadn’t been unpacked and wouldn’t be for another three weeks. His room was messy. Or rather it wasn’t his anymore. He’d completely stopped sleeping in it. He didn’t need to. They didn’t go to sleep angry anymore. Dan dusted thoroughly because it had been months since actual use and he needed things to be orderly again.

Dan felt a little guilty because they didn’t need the room anymore but they needed more space.

He does it because he wants more than a production company contract binding them together. A gaming channel. A book. A tour. A film. Another film. He wants something solid and he wants a ring around his finger and papers outlining their devotion.

He knows it’s all just a formality but he’s always been more materialistic than he lets on.

Understandably, Dan knows they won’t be slow dancing to ‘Interrupted by Fireworks’ but there’s just been too many tweets to put out of his mind. There’s tweets about the names of Dan and Phil’s future children. There’s tweets speculating when they are going to move (the date is in May but they haven’t told anyone they’ve started looking into buying a house). There’s tweets about dogs and storage and the future.

(Dan’s looking into all of those things but he hasn’t told Phil.)

It used to irritate Dan that people could just assume he was with Phil. Now it gives him a slight rush.

It seemed like the most natural thing when Phil’s away for Christmas. Dan’s train left the next day so he had time to go out to the shops. His train left Reading for Manchester the day after Christmas. So when he walked into a jewelry store during a bout of last minute Christmas shopping, it felt natural. He didn’t leave with anything (God forbid - he’s not that impulsive) but Dan asked for a few rings to put on hold. He’d think about them later.

He really wants it all with Phil. He’s wanted it since it was three in the morning in India years ago. It was balmy and he had barely any connection to the shitty wifi but Phil was on the screen in about eight pixels in a video only for Dan’s eyes.

It’s been since then. It didn’t really seem like a decision to make, rather a gradual _I could really spend the rest of my life with you_ kind of thing.

Dan wanted to.

Phil’s family wants to go ice skating when he’s up north. Dan ducks out. He can easily pass up the chance to look like a stumbling fool around Phil’s parents. The idea that they could be his in-laws gets caught in his throat.

They were invited to Felix’s New Year’s Eve party. It was an email with a fancy e-card Dan was sure Marzia had drawn up. The next day Phil forwarded Dan an invitation he had gotten from his (now their) friends up in Rawtenstall. It was unspoken that there wouldn’t be any vlogging cameras or competitive social media posting at that one. They went up north.

Coming out seemed inevitable. Neither of them wanted it big or bold or even too noticeable. They just wanted to relax a bit more at parties, if they were being honest. But if they were being really honest, it was because they wanted the world to know it was them two against it. That they were really together in all aspects of the word.

Dan wanted the implications of being with Phil and being known he was with Phil. He wanted the warm nights under the blue and green covers and movie marathons and for the spare bedroom to be known as a spare bedroom. He wanted to show people how close he was with Phil.

It wasn’t mentioned that often. Coming out would happen when it happened. Dan knew communication was important but they didn’t have to talk about it when Dan started flirting with Phil when the camera was on. Phil flirted back. It wasn’t talked about because it became a silent competition of who could go farther without getting caught. Not getting caught because it seemed half the internet was in on the joke but rather without saying it out loud.

Phil said, “I love you,” before Dan did. Very un-Phil-like in Dan’s opinion. It’s always actions over words with that man. But it was snowing and romantic and undeniably cliche. But Dan is obsessed with cliches and Phil.

Dan has to have control of everything. He wants all the responsibility so it can’t fuck up. That’s why they spent two weeks straight in a dark room with thousands of clips of the tour and show in front of them. Dan felt a little bad he was bossing around a bunch of film editors to have specific clips in certain places but the finished products were wonderful he forgot about it. Phil was out of the room to get lunch when they edited together a few seconds of the segment of the documentary about Phil being sick (what the hell, Dan was literally making a documentary about him and Phil). Dan remembered that week well. Phil refused to so much as kiss Dan which was unusual for a sick Phil. But they were on tour and couldn’t really afford to have Dan ill as well. It was a buzzkill.

They had to bring a flash drive to the production team of all the videos they had on their phones that might be considered for the documentary. There were a lot, more than Dan realized, but it was pretty easy to narrow down. The world didn’t need the clips of Phil giggling in a hoarse voice as Dan struggled to bring two bowls of cereal into their tour bus bedroom or Dan filming himself kissing Phil’s cheek at the fake Eiffel Tower in Vegas or the moments only meant the space between them.

(Dan will never admit to having a folder on his phone dedicated to videos of Phil when he misses him but they are there.)

Dan nods when an editor asks if a video of him playing with Phil’s hair to wake him up can be added in. It’s less than twenty seconds. Dan knows Phil slipped it onto the flash drive thinking Dan would never let it in the documentary. When they watch it in full for the first time, Phil squeezes his hand sharp and quick. The clip is actually seventeen seconds. Not that Dan was counting.

Phil wasn’t even sick when Dan took the video but that’s nothing to be concerned about.

He does it because Phil bought him flowers every few weeks after he had bought them for himself in 2014. Phil knew it wasn’t necessary but he also knew Dan likes having roses because they’re pretty.

Dan wonders how much it would cost for a wedding with only roses for the floral displays.

He wants it to be perfect when he asks. The idea of trying to resurrect the Manchester Eye just to propose seems a little too drastic but it does cross his mind.

Phil’s mum is warm around Dan now. Not that she wasn’t before but she can sense this one’s for the long haul. It’s the first time Dan spends the days after Christmas with the Lesters. They even bought him presents to which he blushed and went out the next day with Phil to hastily buy some presents in return. Phil must have told his mum something about forever because she’s treating Dan like a proper son now. It’s warm.

He’s pretty sure Phil knows by now but Dan’s had a document of links for wedding venues and florists and DJs and caterers since April 2015.

His heart hurts in a good way when Phil casually told him he’s home now. It was the final days of editing the documentary and Phil nudges Dan and says he’s really been the little piece of home all along. It’s sappy and Dan’s eyes may have been a little damp when he looked at the floor and held Phil’s hand.

Of course all their friends know. It’s not a well kept secret. Their friends just don’t tell it out of respect for what they have. No one knows a couple that’s as in sync. Dan’s forgotten what it is like not to have a person so attuned to him.

They can laugh together now about what they were like the first few times of seeing each other. It would be a little embarrassing but they both can admit now how desperate they were for each other, even then. Even now.

Not only that but it looking back it seems like they were less than discreet. Even when they weren’t officially together until midway through the first November.

Dan can spot tweets about cherry lube a mile away but it doesn’t bother him anymore.

They ate at so many diners in America that Phil is sure he will never have another burger again. Dan stopped ordering pancakes halfway through the tour because the portions usually served are enough for the both of them. Phil always complained that Dan was leeching off his pancake supply but if Dan hadn’t done that they would have had to throw out at least ten take home boxes of pancakes.

Dan and Phil cancelled the Internet Takeover before they went on the American tour. It was sort of sad and Dan would miss the lighting in the studios and feeling all important as a radio DJ. But sometimes things had to end. It was comforting that even though they had moved to London for the job, they were staying for each other.

Dan made the reservation for a really fancy brunch place. Reviews rated it five stars. It’s a revelation that they wouldn’t have dared step into such an expensive restaurant four years before but a lot has changed. The reservation was actually just booking out the place for the morning but the details didn’t really matter. He tried not to be extravagant about the whole thing but he couldn’t help it if he had emailed the manager some of Phil’s favorite songs to play or ordered a £100 bouquet.

He had made sure there was food Phil would definitely like and large windows overlooking the city. The ring he had chosen was really simple but Phil never wanted anything too decorative. Dan was going to get an engraving on the inside of it but he refrained. It was all too cheesy.

Dan didn’t know what it was about Phil. He just made him glow inside. He was so much happier with him around. It didn’t really make sense. They really shouldn’t have worked out. How the hell did that stupid eighteen year old catch an internet famous twenty-two year old? And how the hell did it work out? Dan doesn’t question it too long or Phil will have to drag him into bed and cuddle for hours. Phil refuses to let Dan do anything productive when he’s had a few tears.

Dan’s been very productive over the past year.

Phil complains the morning they go out for brunch. It doesn’t hurt Dan’s feelings because he would also rather stay in and just have their coffee and tv shows. But it feels like asking should be more than late-morning-post-pajamas soirée.

Phil laughed when Dan told him it was a date. He somehow already knew.

Dan’s glad it was always more than a Twitter interaction, a Skype call, a roll in the sheets, a kiss on the lips, a move to London.

The brunch is quite lovely. Phil loves the panoramic view of the city and the food. The music is an added bonus. Dan’s heart is beating wings in his chest and he knows he’s smiling too much for the morning.

Dan thinks the best part of the day is the morning. He always wakes up before Phil. Sometimes he even sees the sun rise out over the buildings opposite them. He’ll stay in bed as long as it takes for Phil to wake up which is often a few hours. That’s fine. It’ll be sun peeking around the shade that wakes Phil up. Or Dan playing with his hair. Phil’s voice in the morning is an octave lower and sandpapery.

He has some words on a card tucked in his pocket. Dan doesn’t pull them out. He never needs to. He always has the words when he’s with Phil.

Phil with his houseplants and socks with cool patterns and an affinity for wearing Dan’s shirts and sleeping with the windows open during the summer.

He does it because he doesn’t want to spend another morning without Phil.

Dan feels like the answer to this question was obvious from the first day.

Yes.

_fin_

**Author's Note:**

> hope you liked it! not that i wrote nonfiction but this is nonfiction. 
> 
> please comment or leave kudos because it is very encouraging and i feed off of validation


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